This invention relates to an electric shift apparatus especially suited for use with a motor vehicle having a manual transmission.
Motor vehicles since their inception have required some manner of gear change mechanism to satisfy the varying torque and speed requirements encountered during the typical duty cycle of a motor vehicle. For many years these gear change mechanisms were manual in the sense that they required an operator input from a shift lever or the like to effect each desired gear change ratio. More recently, so called "automatic" transmissions have become popular in which much of the shifting is done without operator input in response to sensed speed and throttle opening parameters. These automatic transmissions however are typically relatively expensive and inherently involve a fuel economy penalty as compared to manual transmissions. Various attempts have been made in the past to combine the low cost and superior fuel economy aspects of a manual transmission with the convenience aspects of an automatic transmission, and, specifically, various attempts have been made to provide automatic or semi-automatic shifting for manual transmissions. However, none of these prior art attempts to facilitate and simplify the shifting of a manual transmission have met with any degree of commercial success since they provided a slow or imprecise shifting action and/or have generated excessive warranty and maintenance costs.